During the public proceedings of Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee (SFC) yesterday, Housing Minister David Lee faced a rigorous line of questioning from Opposition legislators centered on potential unvetted use of public ministry vehicles and drivers by his two fellow ministerial appointees, alongside concerns that unauthorised transportation assignments were driving up overtime costs for the housing agency. The oversight hearing was convened to conduct a granular review of the Ministry of Housing’s proposed $870 million fiscal allocation for the 2027 budget cycle. The ministry operates under a three-minister leadership structure, with Lee serving as the lead portfolio minister, supported by junior ministers Anil Roberts and Phillip Edward Alexander. Opposition MP Stuart Young first raised the red flag over the budget line item earmarked for vehicle and equipment leasing, which listed four active assigned vehicles for the ministry. Young pressed Lee to disclose exactly how many of those government-leased vehicles were currently in active use by the three housing ministers. Lee initially stated that official policy restricted use of ministry vehicles exclusively to conduct of formal government duties, and that such transport was regularly deployed when ministers visited local communities to resolve pressing housing-related constituent issues, a practice he described as standard operating procedure for the agency. When Young followed up to ask if those permitted official duties included off-site trips specifically to film political or public-facing social media content, Lee acknowledged he had no prior knowledge of any such activities being tied to government vehicle use. The line of inquiry then exposed a series of critical gaps in the minister’s oversight of his team’s operations: Lee confirmed he did not personally use a ministry vehicle for his own official duties, but said he could not immediately confirm whether Roberts or Alexander had been accessing the agency’s fleet for their work, noting he did not maintain real-time logs of every minister’s travel arrangements. He also stated he had no awareness of a longstanding formal Cabinet directive that restricts ministers from using dedicated ministry vehicles, as referenced by Young, and said he would need to cross-reference official Cabinet records to confirm if that policy remained in effect or had been formally rescinded. The unresolved line of questioning then shifted to budgetary concerns raised by Opposition MP Camille Robinson-Regis, who focused on the ministry’s noticeably expanded overtime allocation. She alleged that one of Lee’s fellow ministers, who already had a formally assigned dedicated government driver, was being chauffeured by an additional separate ministry driver, a practice she suggested could be the primary driver of the unbudgeted overtime spike for the agency’s transport staff. Lee initially pushed back against the allegation, stating he had never personally signed off on any overtime hours specifically tied to transporting a minister, but conceded he had no verifiable data to confirm no such unapproved arrangement was taking place. At the close of the SFC session, Lee formally committed to launching a full internal audit of the ministry’s vehicle usage logs, overtime records, and Cabinet policy documentation, with a pledge to deliver full, documented responses to all the Opposition’s unresolved queries at a future parliamentary sitting.